Elaine Mitchener presents an event celebrating John Cage’s iconic Song Books, a cornucopia of innovative musical ideas, codes and fragments that reconsider the lyric in an unlikely guise. Shards of text disrupt and distract, demonstrating his famous claim that ‘there is poetry as soon as we realize that we possess nothing’.
Reviews
“We are immersed in action and distraction from every direction – performers are behind us and in front. Dam chants an unintelligible mantra from the side; Mitchener bangs a typewriter; Brenda Mayo slaps pink goggles over her eyes and addresses us in French. At a certain point, the performers assume the majesty of archetypes: the messenger, the trickster, the home-maker, the wild card.” The Wire
Photo credit:
John Hollingsworth